[Am-info] Microsoft's reprieve from sanctions

[Erick Andrews]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/microsoft/Story/0,2763,1248765,00.html

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David Lawsky in Brussels Monday June 28, 2004 The Guardian

The European commission yesterday suspended an order requiring
Microsoft to sell a version of its Windows operating system without
media player software, just hours before the order would have taken
effect.

The temporary move will give a European Union judge breathing space
to sort out Microsoft's request for a long-term suspension of
EU-imposed changes to its business practices, which the commission
demanded along with a record Õ497m (œ330m) fine when it found the
software company had broken competition law.

Microsoft appealed against the commission's decision to the court of
first instance in Luxembourg, the EU's lower court.

On Friday the company asked for a suspension of the sanctions for as
long as the case was before European courts - up to three years or
more.

The commission said it was wrong to enforce the remedies while the
court was deciding what to do about them, but believes they are
"reasonable, balanced and necessary to restore competition in the
marketplace".

There is "a strong public interest in favour of implementing them
without waiting for the judgment on the substance of the case", the
commission said.

Had the commission not acted, court president Bo Vesterdorf could
have issued a temporary suspension.

The Microsoft associate general counsel for Europe, Horacio
Gutierrez, said his company would be hurt by the remedies as would
"many other software development companies and website developers
who have built products for the Windows platform".

The commission ruled in March that Microsoft had violated the law by
using its dominant Windows operating system to compete unfairly
against rivals.

The commission gave Microsoft 90 days to separate Windows Media
Player, which plays music and video over the internet, from its
Windows operating system.  The deadline was yesterday.  Under the
suspended sanction, it would have been up to computer makers to
decide whether to ship Windows with Windows Media Player or with a
rival product, such as RealNetworks' Real Player.

"Once Microsoft releases a degraded product without media
functionality into the market you cannot pull the product back," Mr
Gutierrez said.

The commission also gave Microsoft 120 days to license
interconnection software to ease the way for rivals to hook up their
servers to Windows.

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Erick Andrews